ALG 





ALG 



of the male is a perianthium ; the corol- 

 las five petals ; the nectary hus five-cor- 

 nered scales; the stamens are numerous 

 filaments; 'he anthers roundish. The fe- 

 male flowtrs ar.' fe\v, the calyx, corolla, 

 and nectarium, as in the mule, but larger. 

 There are two seeds with a double bark. 

 Only one species, a tree in the islands of 

 the South Seas. 



ALEXANDRIAN Copy of tl-e JV 

 Testament, preserved in the British Mu- 

 seum, is referred to as an object of curi- 

 osity, as well as of considerable import- 

 ance, to pei-sons who study the scrip- 

 tures critically. It consists of four large 

 quarto, or rather folio volumes, c 

 ing the whole bible in Greek, inrlud-ng 

 the Old and New Testament, with the 

 Apociypha, and some smaller pieces, but 

 not quite complete. It was placed in the 

 ; Museum in 1758; und had been a 

 ^present to Charles I. from Cyrillus Luca- 

 TJS, a native of Crete, and patriarch of 

 Constantinople, by s;r Thomas Rowe, am- 

 bassador from England to the Grand 

 Seignior in the year 1628. Cyrillus 

 brovght it with him from Alexandria, 

 where it was probably written. It is said 

 to have been written by Thecla, a nobie 

 Egyptian lady, about thirteen hundred 

 yeurs ago. In the New Testament there 

 is \vam ing the beginning, as tar as Matt. 

 xxv 6 ; likewise from John vi. 50, to viii. 

 52 ; and from 2 Cor. iv. 19, to xii. ~. it 

 has neitheraccents nor marks of aspira- 

 tion it is written with capita!, or, as they 

 are called, uncial letters, and there aiv no 

 intervals between the wort Is, but th 

 of a passage is sometimes terminated by 

 a point, and sometimes by a vacant space. 

 Dr. Woride pubiis ed this valuable work 

 in 1786, with types cast for the purpose, 

 line for line, precisely like the origiiial 

 MS : the copy has been examined with 

 the greatest care, and it is found to be so 

 perfect a resemblance of the original, that 

 it may supply its place. The authentici- 

 ty, aiu iquity, &c. of this MS. is briefly, 

 but ably, discussed in llees's New Cyclo- 

 pedia, Vol I. p. ii. 



ALG.E, in botany, an order or division 

 of the Cry ptogamia class of plants. It is 

 one of the seven families or natural tribes 

 into which the vegetable kingdom is dis- 

 tributed, in the PhiloBophia Botanica of 

 Linnxus ; the 57th order of his fragments 

 of a natural method. 



The plants belonging to this order are 

 described as having their root, leaf, and 

 stem, entire, or all one. The whole of 

 the sea-weeds, and various other aquatic 

 plants, are comprehended under this di- 



vision. From their admitting of little dis- 

 tinction of root, leaf, or stem, and the 

 parts of their flowers Being equally inca- 

 pable of description ; the genera are dis- 

 tinguished by the situation of what is sup- 

 posed to be Howers or seeds, or by 

 the resemblance which the whole plant 

 bears to-' some other substance. The 

 parts of 'fructification are either found in 

 saucers and tubercles, asinlichens ; in hol- 

 low bladders, as in the fuci ; or dispersed 

 through tine whole substance of the plants, 

 as in the ulvse. The substance of the plants 

 has much variety ; it is flesh-like or lea- 

 ther-like, membranaceousornbrous, jelly- 

 like or horn-like, or it has the resem- 

 blance of a calcareous earthy matter. 



Lamarck distributes the alga: into three 

 sections : the iirst comprehends all those 

 plants, whose fructification is not appa* 

 rent, or seems doubtful. These common- 

 ly live in water, orupon moist bodies, and 

 are membranous, gelatinous, or filamen- 

 tous. To this section he refers the byssi, 

 conferva, ulva, tremella, and varec. The 

 plants of the second section are distin- 

 guished by their apparent fructification, 

 though it be little known, and they are 

 formed of parts which have no particu- 

 lar and sensible opening or explosion, at 

 am determined period ; their substance 

 is ordinarily crustaceous or coriaceous. 

 They include the tassella, ceratosperma, 

 and lichen. The third section compre- 

 hends plants \vhich have their fructifica- 

 t on very apparent, and distinguished by 

 constituent parts, which open at a certain 

 penod of maturity, for the escape of the 

 fecundating dust or seeds. These plants 

 are more herbaceous, as to both their 

 substance and their colour, than those of 

 the other two sections, and are more near- 

 ly related to the mosses, from which they 

 do not essentially differ. Their flowers 

 are often contained in articulated and ve- 

 ry elastic filaments. To this section are 

 referred the riccia, blasia, anthoceros, 

 targioria, hepatica, and junger-manna. In 

 the Lmnxan system the algae are divided 

 into two classes, viz. the terrestres and 

 aquaticae. The former include the an- 

 thoceros, blacia, riccia, lichen, and bys- 

 sus ; and the latter are the ulva i'ucus, 

 and conferva. The fructification of the 

 algx, and particularly of those called 

 aquaticse,is denominated, by a judicious 

 botanist, the opprobrium botanicorum. 



ALGAROTH. See ANTIMOST. 



ALGEBRA, a general method of re- 

 solving mathematical problems by means 

 of equations ; or, it is a method of 

 computation by symbols, which have been 



